Bethesda's Starfield and the Australian R18 Rating

 

Australia Classification Board vs Starfield

The establishment of the ESRB in 1994 was one of the landmark events in the history of the medium. video games were seen as significant enough that they warranted being analyzed by the non-gaming public. After outrage about games like Mortal Kombat and Night Trap, it became clear that the video game industry, at least in the eyes of those who were not familiar with video games, needed to be regulated somehow. With the creation of the ESRB, we get those prominent letters on the right side of the box that tell us about the content in the game and whether it is appropriate for children of certain ages. This was a landmark time in the history of video games. The industry had managed to weather the storm and get into the good graces with the regulators. With the regulation now on place, did this meant that video games were off the hook? Not necessarily. The pressure was still there. 

With the continued rise in gaming in the 1990s with the transition to 3D graphics, the regulation of video games became an even bigger topic. The United States would see a variety of controversies throughout the generations of video games, ranging from concerns about violence in games to modding communities including adult material that were generally not included in the original game. One of those games was Grand Theft Auto III: San Andreas, where adult material that was not ordinarily available to the player was unlocked by modders. This caused quite an uproar in Australia. 

Australia's Paternalistic Approach to Video Games

However, all this hoopla about the modding communities or violence in video games pales in comparison to what Australia does with its video game industry. Australia, while being part of what is often called the Developed World, is often one of the most moralistic countries in that group. While they like to talk about how they are better than the United States, Australia has a tendency to be quite against video games in many respects. Their ratings system is a complete mess in that country. The Australians who have often prided themselves as a people who are regulating guns and being a more civilized society than that of the Americans, have many issues with violent video games. 

Australia has had a very rocky relationship with the video game industry, especially games like Grand Theft Auto by the Britain based Rockstar games. The Australian Classification Board has been responsible for banning all sort of games.

According to this article form CBR, many of the games in Australia were getting banned due to drug use. Disco Elysium, one of the standout rpgs of the era was banned due to drug use in the game. This sort of moral panic over video games is something that you expect in America during the 1990s. Even during that time, there was the same movement to be banning games. Congressmen and Senators were responsible for hearings on video games in America but there was nothing like the situation in Australia. America is lax even though people like to attack it for being a prudish nation. This hypocrisy is incredibly annoying to me. 

Australia, while being a society that constantly agitates about how undemocratic China is on its media, tends to be one of the most censorious when it comes to video games. In one year alone, they were banning more games than they had done in the past 20 years that the Australia Classification Board had been there. 

While I do not want to get into an America vs Australia debate about video games ratings, the fact that the country lacked a R18 rating for many years is one of those things that leaves you scratching your head. Australia has a vibrant video game scene and yet their censor board is incredibly powerful in a way that ESRB is not. It is one of the quirks of Australian society today.

Bethesda and the Rise of the Mature Rating

With regards to Starfield, the developer, Bethesda has put several mature themes into the games. While there was a time that Bethesda tried to stay away from being too mature with games like Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, they have moved squarely into games that have the mature rating in America. The United States protection for free speech and artistic expression protects video games across the country, but not so much in Australia. 

Starfield according to multiple articles that have been written about it. GameRant, a video game reports that the rating for Starfield is going to Mature, which the highest acceptable rating for any video game whether it be sold on the shelves or on Steam. 

One of the many things that this represents is that Bethesda is going into a different direction with these ratings. They want their games to be for mature audiences rather than teenagers, which show that the development team is more interested in getting adults to play their games than youngsters. Skyrim was a shift away from the teen-oriented content of previous years, with the game series of the Elder Scrolls harkening back to its more mature roots in the opening two games of the series. 

Australia gives Starfield the R18 rating

In Australia, which is notorious for banning all sort of video games, the rating board in the country gave the game a Restricted Rating according to GamesRadar. One of the things that is quite revealing about this article is how Bethesda has become rather restrictive with their depiction of intimacy but is particularly very lax with violence and drug use. In the article, they talk about the game has ''interactive drug use''. This is due to the fact that one of the cities in Starfield, Neon, is home to a drug trade in a substance that is made from a certain creature on the planet. Of course, this is a fictional drug and yet Australia's Classification Board is up in arms about it.

To be honest, Bethesda has always had some sort of drug use in their games. Skooma was used in the Elder Scrolls series and it is logical that they would continue making games that have these themes in there.

Australia and Censorship

Australia should not worry about what that there is a fictitious substance in the game. Obviously, most children and older adults understand that doing substances is not good for their health. However, it is clear that Australia is still in the grips of a moral panic when it comes to video games. 

Starfield seems to be a game that will be representing a trend in media that has been going on for some time. There is an emphasis on violence and drug use over that of intimacy between adults. Starfield's interactive drug use is banal compared to some of the content can find on the internet. I do not understand why Australia is spending their time trying to censor games such as this.

Will these hurt sales for Starfield? I do not believe so. Whoever is interested in playing this game is going to play this game. I just wish that Australia was more pragmatic about how they reated their games. They often have this righteous attitude towards video games that I wish that they didn't have. they need to understand that video games are a special medium that are deserving of respect from the rest of society. 

Starfield's rating in Australia is not really of a concern to me. The game will make waves there just like it will make waves everywhere else. 

PS: Here is an interesting article about the history of Australia Video Game Ratings

Here is also another article about 11 video games getting banned for controversial content.